As Iranian missiles and drones retaliated against the United States’ strikes earlier this month, U.S. diplomats in the region were still largely in place—as were the likely hundreds of thousands of American citizens who visit or live in the Middle East. “It was a predictable contingency that there should have been planning for prior to U.S. strikes on Iran being launched,” said Yael Lempert, a former U.S. ambassador who oversaw evacuation efforts from Libya during its 2011 revolution. “It’s